London - American Tower is exploring a bid for Cellnex Telecom SA to
expand in Europe as the Spanish tower
operator’s main shareholder considers selling assets as part of a merger,
according to people familiar with the matter. Cellnex surged in Madrid trading.
Any offer from American
Tower would hinge on the
successful combination of the Spanish company’s largest shareholder, Abertis Infrastructures
SA, with Atlantia SpA, the people said, asking not to be identified as the
information is private. Atlantia would determine whether to sell the Abertis
assets once the deal is concluded, one of the people said.
Cellnex climbed as much as 5.9 percent to a record high of
18.99 Euros at the opening and was up 3.3 percent to 18.52 Euros at 9:14 a.m.
The stock has risen about 36 percent this year, giving the company a market
value of about 4.3 billion Euros [$4.8 billion].
American Tower, which has a market value of about $56
billion, has yet to make a formal offer for the Spanish firm, another person
said. No final agreements have been reached with any of the parties, and the
discussions may not result in a deal, the people said.
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“Cellnex management has not had any type of contact with American Tower over any sort of possible deal,” a
spokesman said. Representatives for American
Tower and Abertis
declined to comment.
Abertis, which is Cellnex’s largest shareholder with a 34
percent stake, has received an $18 billion offer from Atlantia in a deal that
would create the world’s biggest toll-road operator. Abertis is planning to
sell about a 4 percent stake to simplify the deal and avoid triggering a
Spanish rule that would require Atlantia to make an offer for all of Cellnex.
Abertis’s 57 percent holding in Spanish satellite and
broadband provider Hispasat SA may also be sold, one of the people said.
Atlantia is open to selling non-core assets following the tie-up, people familiar
with the matter said in April.
An acquisition of Cellnex would add to the flurry of tower
deals in Europe in the last several months.
Earlier this year, Telefonica SA agreed to sell a minority stake in its Telxius
infrastructure unit to KKR for 1.28 billion Euros. Cellnex agreed to buy mobile
phone towers from Swiss carrier Sunrise Communications Group AG last week.
BLOOMBERG